Gossip: Fringe Festival 2 slated for 2011

Thursday

Oct 28, 2010 at 2:00 AM

FRINGE FESTIVAL NUMBER 2 SLATED FOR 2011

Jeanné McCartin

FRINGE FESTIVAL NUMBER 2 SLATED FOR 2011

From the first phone conversation, Linda Palmer, director/founder of the Seacoast Fringe Festival held Oct. 8-10 in Portsmouth, proves to be direct and forthcoming; the same with subsequent calls. So her candid evaluation of the first SFF is no surprise. Yup, first. Expect the second annual in '11, Columbus Day weekend.

Year one wrap up: "It had its troubles and it was a success — half and half," says Palmer. "We made lots of mistakes and we learned from them. I would emphasize we had great performance people from as far away as Atlanta and Albany, N.Y. And even though the crowds were small they were enthusiastic."

The key mishap was scheduling, she says. "My fault."

"Let's say there were serious mix-ups so people either missed the show or we really confused the participants." One example was double booking a venue. Palmer says she made it financially right for the "extra" act.

Another was the placement of acts. One incident occurred with the Black Mountain Symphony, "a big rock fusion rock band." The venue size was wrong. "They said let us fix it. We'll go acoustic. ...; They were wonderful," Palmer says. "I asked the drummer to marry me."

The big thing for next year is to scale down the size of the festival, says Palmer. "This year we had performers going from noon till 10 at night. It was too big for us, too expansive, too grand. We didn't know. We were so new." They'll scale back and build slowly.

She's also learned to beef up press and says while volunteers "were incredible," more are needed.

Another lesson learned is it's a wonderful event worth the effort. It brought great, interesting, unusual art to the city.

"Even when mistakes were made — we had fun. ...; There were times I cried I was so happy with performances. ...; The acts were really, really world class," she says. "It was the most exciting weekend of my life."

a trifecta in the works

There's yet another reason to celebrate for fans of "Sharp Dressed Men," and "All The Rage," the first two of a trilogy of plays by Seacoast playwright Greg Gaskell. Yes, he's working on "From Now On," the final piece, but he's also putting together "Days Like These," a Web series based on the characters.

"I had a billion ideas that were not right for a stage play. And I didn't like making them into full-length movies. It was Danica Carlson that got me going on this. I had said 'I just wanted to write for these characters all the time,' and she said — 'do it. Make a Web series.'" It clicked. Gaskell then contacted Mike Ficara, of Shoe Slung Films, and they clicked. And now they're in preproduction.

The piece is cast. Gaskell is back as the staid brother. Jamie Bradley and Chris Savage are his siblings; Tobin Moss is Victor once more. Rebecca Rudolph and Scott and Meredith Caple round out the cast. Ten episodes are planned the first round, eight to 12 minutes each. Five are written. Filming starts in February, between other projects including "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" at the Players' Ring in April, in which both Gaskell and Bradley appear. "We hope to be done in March. That's the plan."

"There's so much I can do with these characters now because of (film). ...; We can get out into the world, off the one-room of the stage. And I don't have to write a 90-minute continuous story."

He plans on pitching "From Now On" at the Ring for its 2011 season. Can't say if it will be selected, but then the "boys" in the show are wildly popular. "I think (they're popular) because you went to high school with these guys; that's who Tom, Henry and George are."

an artistic twist to 'brel' play

Interesting twist to the upcoming play "Jacques Brel is Alive & Well & Living in Paris" (produced by New Hampshire Theatre Project, Nov. 12-28). "I've always wanted to put live visual art on stage with performance," says Blair Hundertmark, its director. And so he will. Three of them.

"This show lends itself to that in my thinking. ...; The artists will be on stage and will create the scenic backdrop live during the piece, every night. We'll rotate the artists through the three weekends." The artists are Dustan Knight, Roger Goldenberg and Carl Aichele, (NHTP Director Genevieve Aichele's brother.)

"This show lends itself to that in my thinking. The challenge is blending the theatrical performance, musical performance and visual art performance, it's an interesting intersection for me," says Hundertmark.

Visual artists most often work in solitude. This is a rare opportunity to watch them work, and in response to words and music the audience is experiencing at the same time.

The reaction of artists when asked to go public? "Fear mostly. They really feel challenged by this. All three of them have said this is a scary thing; we work alone in our own little vacuum, and we do it for a reason — we prefer that," says Hundertmark.

The art will be sold when the run is completed.

Catch Hundertmark on the other side of the stage in the NHTP production of "Amadeus" in January.

Jeanné McCartin has her eyes and ears out for Seacoast gossip. Visit her blog at http://thegossiplady.blogspot.com and e-mail maskmakernh@gmail.com.

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